VG Myths – Can You Beat Super Mario Odyssey Without Jumping?

Good morning everybody and welcome to the new, rebranded VG Myths! The show where we push games to their limits and solve life’s most inconsequential mysteries. Today, I’ve just got one simple question: Can you beat Super Mario Odyssey… …without jumping? Now to some people, this question might seem like a really stupid and really obvious NO! While Mario can bounce on Cappy to get good vertical elevation, there’s several moments where you have to play as capture targets whose only vertical movement option is to, well, jump But hold on one second! What if I told you, THAT isn’t a jump? I know it sounds crazy, but I’m not talking some weirdo semantics. I’m actually making the claim that pressing the A button and making this frog twitch its leg muscles in just such a way that it gains tremendous vertical height is, according to the laws of the universe, absolutely, categorically, legally not a jump. And I can prove it. But before we actually get to that, END GAME SPOILER WARNING! The wimps, the weak, and the wusses have got five seconds to hightail it out of here before their life is ruined.

You gone? I hope so, ’cause trust me, you do not want to know the fact that… …after beating the game you unlock the Mushroom Kingdom and, more importantly, you unlock Toadette. Apart from being the best Mario Kart character, Toadette tracks various statistics and awards you with Moons for meeting milestones. And just guess what one of the statistics she tracks is… Yep, that’s right. Thanks to Toadette, we have an actual in-game jump counter that can tell us exactly which actions are considered jumps and therefore off limits. With a little help from the strem chat, I tested every capture target you’re likely to capture on a minimalist playthrough, using every one of their potential actions. The results proved it: Every single action you can perform as a capture, even if it says the word “jump” at the bottom of the screen, does not increment the jump counter, and is therefore not a jump. So before you go leaving comments saying “A jump is a jump,” go tell Koizumi. He’s the one who made the executive decision. Of course, thanks to this counter, we can also figure out which parts of Mario’s own moveset are legal.

The only actions that increment the counter are jumps, Double Jumps, Triple Jumps, Backflips, Sideflips, Long jumps, Ground Pound Jumps, jumping at the surface of water, and 2D jumps. Everything that uses the Y button is allowed outright, and jump button actions that are performed off the ground are also allowed, meaning we can wall jump, jump off poles, and swim up as long as we aren’t at the surface of the water. So to summarize, as long as we don’t press the jump button while on ground level, we are safe.

Honestly, I can’t think of any real problems we’ll run into in this challenge. After we wake up Mario, it’ll just be a long walk t- uhh… …Oh. We have to… wake up… Mario ♪Here we go-♪ Sorry, sorry. I’d love to do another music video, but somehow I don’t think I can stretch out Mario sleeping for three minutes But come on! What kind of bad luck is this? Literally the only action you’re allowed to do at the start of the game is a jump. You’re not even allowed to pause yet! But don’t worry, It’s not as bad as it seems.

Pay close attention: Mario doesn’t jump like he normally does here. Instead he does an animation that’s completely unique to this moment of the game. It’s essentially just a cutscene, and since the devs programmed the jump counter to be triggered by specific actions during gameplay, It makes sense that they probably never thought to make this instance increment the counter, though, just in case, we should jot it down in our memory for later. From here, we get Cappy and the run really starts! Cappy is our best friend, more so than in any other run of the game. By throwing Cappy out, holding the throw button, and walking into him, you can bounce, essentially replacing the standard jump. The really neat thing too is as long as Mario is on the ground when he bounces, this doesn’t prevent Mario from bouncing in the air, meaning you can still do the bounce, throw, dive, bounce, throw, dive trick for maximum vertical and horizontal movement.

It does still make for a bit of a different experience though, since you can’t just bounce on the spot. You have to get a real good feel for exactly where Cappy’s going to land when you throw it, and if there’s anything in your way, you won’t be able to bounce at all. And if you’re on a thin platform, you won’t be able to bounce from the ground! You’ll have to walk off and dive into Cappy, using up your one and only midair bounce. By now I’ve gotten way better at bouncing on Cappy than I should be and I’m actually kind of afraid I’ll never get used to the normal jump button again.

Our first potential roadblock is in the first proper level, Cascade Kingdom. You’re required to beat the boss at the top of the level, and the normal path up requires you to go into a 2D section, in which we don’t have that many options. I was originally thinking that I have to figure out some crazy over-the-top ledge climbing nightmare trick. But, turns out the speedrun community already figured out a trick for me, and it’s ridiculously easy.

There just so happens to be a bounce pad on the lower section of the level and it just so happens bouncing on it as a T-rex gives you just barely enough height to reach the boss arena. Sand Kingdom similarly wants us to go up a 2D section to finish this first story segment, but there’s actually enough Moons just scattered around the desert’s ground level! The same is true for the next few levels as well. Then we reach Lost Kingdom. Yeah, Mario’s, uh, not quite the most agile without Cappy. The most verticality we can get is with a roll which isn’t winning us any gold medals If only there were some way to get further in the level without losing Cappy… Oh wait, there is! Thanks once again to the speedrun community! They’re really good at not jumping and they don’t even know it.

While much of the level on the side with Klepto is off-limits, there’s a tree in the swamp we can reach and from there we can do a very tricky jump to just barely screech under the nearby cage and from there, we have just enough room to reach the higher section of this level. Luckily, Klepto doesn’t trigger here, or on the platform where you normally fight him. And he still moves to the ground pound spot to make himself killable! New Donk City doesn’t have any roadblocks, but when I was here I was trying to beat the game without pole jumps, too, and we figured out some pretty neat tricks to get up the indoor climbing section. But near the end I could never figure out how to get past this part right here.

It seems just way too high to get up without the pole! If anybody wants to give it a try, record a video, and let me know. I want to see that happen! Next up: Jump Up, Super Star! …No. At this point, there is nothing big the game throws at us. Each Kingdom just involves finding whatever moons happen to be lying in reach, and with liberal use of captures, we can make it all the way to the end of the moon for the Bowser boss fight. Bowser himself is the most interesting boss in no jump. He has several attacks that sweep across the entire ground, AND in order to hurt him you have to put his cap on, preventing you from using Cappy to jump. The only way to dodge the fire after putting it on is with the very short roll hop, which is just BARELY enough to get over and feels awesome. After putting the hat on the Bowser, we get to enjoy the end cutscene, head to the Mushroom Kingdom, and talk to Toadette.

Place your bets now, everybody! How many jumps do you think she’s gonna say? One? Two? Zero? TWENTY-NINE!? Yeah, apparently I jumped 29 times, which is news to me! So, we went back to the drawing board testing all of Mario’s actions and seemingly coming up short until eventually we tried talking to NPCs. Yep, legally, the act of initiating conversation counts as a jump! Having never tested this, and never expecting it to count, I talked to NPCs all over the place on our first run, buying Moons and outfits and sometimes just random chitchat for fun! It’s important to know this only occurs if the player initiates the conversation themselves. So why is this happening? I’ve got a few ideas. See, talking to NPCs can only be done with the jump button. I’m thinking either the jump counter is set to increment when Mario presses A while standing on the ground, regardless of what action that press results in, or, the game in the background when processing the sequence of events goes like this: “Player presses A.

Is Mario on the ground? Yes, therefore jump. Player jumped, therefore jump counter plus one. Is there an NPC nearby? Yes, therefore, trigger talking animation.” The talking animation cancels the jump, but not ’till after the jump has been initiated and the counter incremented. I like this theory more because it means we’re not getting cheated here. Mario is actually jumping. The jump is just cut short so incredibly, infinitesimally fast that it’s not even visible when going frame by frame! While initiating NPC dialogue isn’t actually required to beat the game, it is required to talk to Toadette to see the jump counter, and what’s the point of this run if we can’t actually see the number zero? But with the strem chat’s help, running through ideas, we figured out a loophole! Check that out in slow-mo: Yep, we talk to the NPC before actually touching the ground! Jumping requires Mario to press A while on the ground, but talking to NPCs only requires Mario to press A while facing the NPC! When landing a ground pound, there’s a brief window of time where Mario isn’t on the ground, but is facing the NPC, and thus can talk to the NPC without jumping.

Special thanks to Herobrine and everybody else in the strem chat who threw ideas at the wall. Without you peeps, I might have never figured this out. With this newfound knowledge, we go through the entire game again, this time being as antisocial as possible And thanks to the grand pound trick, we’ve finally beaten Super Mario Odyssey with…! One jump!? C’mon! We double checked to make sure I did the ground pound talking correctly and, yep, we’d entered Toadette’s room with one jump already on the counter. At this point, I was worried I’d somehow at some point just jumped and not even noticed! But, there was just one part of the entire run that was a question mark. Remember at the beginning of the game when you have to wake Mario up? This happens exactly three times throughout the game.

The beginning, in the Ruined Kingdom, and just before putting the hat on the Bowser. Look very closely at what happens in each of these instances: A, B, or C, which one is the odd one out? If you answered C, you’re correct. As mentioned at the beginning of the video, the first two times Mario is asleep, he has a completely unique animation where he stands up and transitions into a cutscene. But the third time, he has no such animation.

He just does a normal jump, and the player is immediately in control, so it’s very likely that the game considers this moment a jump no different from any other. Unfortunately, this leaves us in a tight spot. We arrive in this area via cutscene, so there’s no fancy movement tricks we can do to prevent Mario from falling asleep. And once Mario’s asleep, no button on the controller will respond except the jump button. I am sorry to say it.

We came all this way, but I’m led to the conclusion it is 100% impossible for Mario to get himself up and bank the ending… without jumping. Good thing Mario’s not the only one here! We’ve been using Cappy as a tool the entire game, but it’s finally his turn to take the spotlight as the player character! In two-player mode, the second controller controls Cappy, and by beating Bowser while in two-player mode, both players are still in control while Mario is asleep. Mario can’t press the jump button without failing the challenge, but Cappy has no such restriction and can give Mario a helping hand. Check that out! That was no jump. That was a BOUNCE! For the third and final time, we put the hat on the Bowser and beat Super Mario Odyssey! I want everybody here to know that no matter what number it says… We’ve really accomplished something here. We’ve really pushed this game to its limits. I’m gonna press down. Five seconds: Five… Four… Three… Two… …Zero…! YES! Yea-ha-ha! YEAH! Special ridiculous arigato gozaimasu to everybody who joined the strem chat and made this challenge possible.

The Super Mario Odyssey no jump run is officially… MISSION COMPLETE! Special thanks to all Patreon backers including: Erik Flinn, Lord Arentci, LezLamb, Zanybandz, David20Covers, BaeD JD, and Rb_Dranche! Let me know how much this video sucks, and how I can improve in the comments below! Arigato gozaimasu desu for watching and get out of my house. .